Govt 'withheld results from radioactive site'

A man whose parents died while living near a former uranium smelter site in Sydney's north says he is angry the Government withheld information from the public.

A New South Wales parliamentary committee is holding an inquiry into the site on Nelson Parade at Hunter's Hill.

Members of the inquiry visited the site earlier this week and found unacceptable levels of radioactivity. Recent independent testing of soil samples found 350 times more radioactive than what is considered safe.

The NSW Government is now under pressure to compensate and apologise to the residents living on the land.

The parents of Greg and Kate McGrath died of cancer while living in the street in the 1970s.

Mr McGrath has told the inquiry he has seen letters from the Health Department saying the results of testing at the site should be kept from the public.

"That just concerns me and I guess makes me angry because you know it's been 35 years and we were unaware even that we were living in a street that had that kind of problem," he said.

'Ridiculed'

Phillippa Clark from a local residents group says people in the street have been embarrassed since reports on the site were published in the media.

"We're all the brunt of jokes like 'Are we glowing in the dark?', 'Here comes tick tick tick, the Geiger counter girl'," she said.

The group says it wants further independent, high-level testing of properties in the street.

The lawyer representing the current owners of the site has told the inquiry they have commissioned their own series of tests to measure levels of contamination.